Phantom phone

     Last night my wife experienced an unexplained anomoly. We turned in around midnight. My wife said she was feeling twinges that sometimes are precursors of leg cramps; so we read for a while. Shortly before 1 am she felt the episode had passed and we (rather I) went to sleep. She said that shortly thereafter the twinges were back and she felt a cramp coming on. So rather than wake me, she had gotten up and gone downstairs to hopefully walk off the cramp. After a bit the episode eased up but she thought she'd read for a bit to be sure. Reading a book in the library she was suddenly aware of a phone ringing. As our phone is in the library, beside the chair she was using, she immediately knew it wasn't our phone. The time was 3:10 am; It rang four times and quit. Thinking maybe she imagined it; she schrugged it off. A few minutes later it again rang. This time it was picked up on the third ring and a short muddled conversation took place.So obvious was the whole matter that she picked up our phone to be sure it wasn't coming in that way. She got a definite dial tone. She couldn't make out what was said but suddenly decided that maybe she better come back to bed. Keep in mind this house of ours is not only almost soundproof  our dog's barks carry from inside and fire sirens and loud mufflers can sometimes be heard inside), but besides this the house sets well away from our neighbors. The neighbor on the right is at lest 200 ft from us, the one across the road is 150 ft or better away and the ones on the left are 700 ft or more away. Even if the windows were open here and at the neighbors, you couldn't hear their phone. Last night was unseasonably cold (mid 30s) and I can guarentee you no one had any windows open. Where this phone sound originated or how is a good question. Mice don't use the phone. I think maybe it would be interesting to stay up all night sometime and see just what does go on in this place.

Strange

   This was just strange, to me at lest. I was sitting at the computer looking up some items on E Bay. My attention was on the monitor and what I was looking up. I thought I felt my dog place his paws on the arm of my chair, the chair even shifted slightly like added weight was added. He does this sometimes when it is about time to take him out. I placed my arm down, to encircle him and say "just a minute"; but he was not there. My hand and arm met only empty space. Looking into the den from my place in the library I could plainly see my dog lying on my wife's lap. I definitely felt something that automatically elicited an appropriate reaction from me. But obviously, it hadn't happened. I suppose theres a logical explaination for this. It just seems strange to me.

Strange recorded sounds

     A couple of weeks ago, I had the sound activated recorder set up in the Green room. I had a lot of my dogs barking on it, and a few household voices could be heard coming from elsewhere in the house. Then I got the sound of what sounded like a bell ringing, like it was being carried. It had the sound of a pretty good sized bell. The sound appeared to be in the same room as the recorder, that is, it did not have a far away or outside sound. I figured since it was so lound and clear I'd find its source. The only bell anywhere near the Greenroom is a small shipsbell that hangs beside the western rear entrance to the house. I tried ringing it with the recorder on; the result was both higher in pitch and sounded farther away; much much further away; the first attempt didn't activate the recorder; hitting it really hard did, but the results were not the same. So I have no immediate explaination for the ringing bell. HOWEVER, I had the recorder ,last week, in an alcove in the wall in the turn of the wall of the front winding staircase. The recorder was located beside a lamp we keep in that alcove. The external mike was a good inch from the wall and hanging just about 4 inches up from the stairway carpet. We rarely use the front stairs so I felt that external noises would be at a minimum. The recorder was on sound activation for three days before I got around to checking it. It had about 4 minutes of tape that had run. When I ran that four minutes of tape I had my own voice on part of it as I was setting it up. Then a silent period of a few seconds, then the strangest sounds; almost, but not quite like a stringed instrument being plucked. I have no explaination. I'm sure there must be one. But I don't have it. I'm going to try again the same place this week and see if it should reoccur.

A long loud moan

  First weird sound in a while and where was my recorder? Upstairs in the green room of course. My dog and I have the house all to ourselves this week. Well, not quite, we do have workmen remodeling the downstairs bath, but they leave anywhere between 2:30 and 4:30. So tonight, about 5 minutes before 9:00 pm, I'm reading at the computer and my dog is lying not three feet from me. From the diningroom comes a long low moan; startles me, the pup looks up toward the diningroom then lies his head back down in a nonchalant manner. Of course I have the recorder set up in the upstairs green room unstead of the diningroom. Tonight...I'm going to try the diningroom again; I'll set it just before I retire for the night.

Recordings

So far no unexplained noises have shown up on the recorder. The wife went to see friends this week. Now I can record with noone but me and the dog. I'm going to try the green room first; then the front hall and stairs. Actually the house has been very quiet since I tried recording. Timid ghosts?

Recorded sounds

     So far the recorder I purchased is sensitive enough to pick up the sound of my walking to it. It also picked up the firetruck siren and two loud mufflers. Thats all so far. So unless I get something worth talking about; I won't. I will continue trying the recorder in different parts of the house; but unless I get results that are not readily explained I'll not discus it further.

Tape recorder

    Well running the old Wecor reel to reel tape recorder didn't record anything that wasn't easily explained and the hours of just sitting and listening for something is downright boring. So today, I purchased a General Electric tape recorder with automatic activation and a seperate microphone. It has volume control and sensitivity control. I set it up in our Livingroom, on the table, with the external mike dangling about a foot above the floor. I have the volume on maximum and the sensitivity set at maximum. Now well see what transpires if anything. I chose the livingroom over the dininroom primarily because the livingroom can be closed off from outside sounds. My wife has the livingroom set up in total victorian fashion, so its rarely used unless we have company and once those massive oak doors are closed, very little sound is heard from the outside. The fire siren, and a very loud muffler can be heard but talking or even shouting from outside doesn't penetrate. If I get no satisfaction in the livingroom I will move the recorder to the diningroom ; but will have to activate it after dark because the diningroom is the hub of the house and we are constantly moving through it to go to other rooms such as the kitchen, library, or Den. There are two other areas I might try later on; the Green room and the Frontstairs and upstairs hall. The attic was mentioned when I was still trying to use the old Webcore, but I'm not sure how sound isolated it might be. Still a possibility ,as is the basement.